DJI Phantom 3 Video – How Good Is The Video

I am having great fun editing video from the new DJI Phantom 3 quad copter. I don’t own one, but have a good friend who does, and we’ve been jaunting about getting nice samples of 4K and 1080p video from the excellent professional version of this popular drone. My buddy is a good drone pilot, and his flying skills certainly make the video more watchable – but it’s the quality of the video that I’m addressing in this post.

First of all, so far everything I’ve gathered from our shoots is crisp and colorful. The native 4K camera on the Phantom 3 Pro is capable and pro-level. Shots look cinematic. The field of view is wide, but not overly distorted or fish-eyed. The color is nice – note here that we have not gone out of auto settings for our experimental flights. The video we’ve gathered has been very easy to import into a premium editing program like Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015, and color grading has been a piece of cake. Nothing is overly blown out in white balancing. There is a broad range of color and contrast to be pulled from the pixels.

The gimbal is fantastic. We’ve not tested in moderate to high wind – but then again why would we want to. I prefer to shoot when conditions are favorable, not when wind will push the limits of the gear. If conditions are event decent, the gimbal keeps the video smooth and splendid to view.

I love the 4K shots we’ve gathered. It’s great to know you are able to move forward with a format that is catching on slowly but surely – and also one that can be brought into 1080p projects and re-framed as needed. The 1080p 60fps video looks smashing good as well.

Have I found a downside in the editing of Phantom 3 video? No I have not. It’s as good in my opinion as video I’ve shot with my GoPro Hero4. I’ve included some samples below for review. So far – so good. I’m loving this quad!